Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Informa.plc is the multinational conglomerate owner of scholarly-sounding brands "Taylor & Francis" and Routledge). The 2013 Informa annual report is now out.

Revenue has increased to £367 million in 2013 from £340 million in 2012
Adjusted operating profit increased by £4 million, to £130 million in 2013 from £126 million in 2012.
There was a slight decrease in adjusted operating margin, from 37% in 2012 to 35% in 2013. (Informa. 2013, p. 5)

In U.S. dollars:
Revenue has increased to $600 million US in 2013 from $560 million in 2012
Adjusted operating profit increased by $6 million, to $215 million in 2013 from £209 million in 2012.

What if the academic publishing arm of informa were to reduce its profit level to a very healthy profit rate of 20%, instead of 35%? The net profit for informa would have been $120 million US rather than $215 million US. The difference - $95 million - could fund 950 academic positions at an average salary of $100,000 per year.

Update Nov. 9, 2015: please note that publisher profits is not my research area. I am not an economist or financial analyst. Reed Elsevier and other publicly traded corporations are required to publish their financial results. If you are looking for an appropriate citation for Elsevier profits, please read and cite the Elsevier annual report. If you are directed here by a citation incorrectly identifying me as an expert in this area, please let the citing source know that they are in error. If you are interested in my actual research area, please see my current research blog sustainingknowledgecommons.org

The Reed Elsevier annual report was published in March. One highlight of interest in the area of scholarly publishing is the revenue and adjusted operating profit for the Scientific, Technical & Medical portion of the business.

Revenue is up 1% from 2012, while profit is up 6% from 2012 (Reed Elsevier 2014, p. 12).
Elsevier's profit increased from £780 million in 2012 to £826 million in 2013. That's an increase in profit alone of £46 million, or $76 million in U.S. dollars.

Surely universities have better things to do with this kind of money than further increasing the profits of already highly profitable publishers? For example:
$76 million dollars in extra profits to Elsevier could fund 760 academic positions at a rate of $100,000 per year - and this wouldn't even touch Elsevier's previously high profit rate!
$76 million dollars in extra profits to Elsevier could fund over 12,000 student research assistantships at a rate of $6,000 each.